


Too Many Walls

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf is all up in everyone's biz, F/M, Fix It Fic, Gen, Immortal Rose Tyler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 01:35:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20301283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Rose and the TARDIS show up just a little bit too late to save the Doctor at the Game Station, and even though Bad Wolf is able to revive him, she is also left as Bad Wolf for quite a bit longer than expected, which gives her plenty of time to interfere with the Doctor's life in all the right ways. As long as she has a say in the matter, she will make sure that Rose and her Doctor have their happy ever after.





	Too Many Walls

The Doctor pulled on a leather jacket, but didn’t even have time to stop and look in the mirror before the TARDIS seemed to decide for herself that he needed to be in London, Earth in 2005. He felt too tired to argue with her about anything, at the moment. He just felt so… tired. And empty. He’d been able to feel the exact moment that his mind was torn away from all of the others, and he didn’t really care where he was, or when. Nowhere he could go would ever be able to take his mind off of what he’d done.

He also knew that the TARDIS wouldn’t bring him somewhere without there being a reason, and he knew how jeopardy-friendly the Earth could be, so he decided to go looking for that reason. It didn’t take him long to catch on to the Autons and the Nestene consciousness, and he felt the slightest stirring in his hearts. Who was he to let all these stupid apes get killed when there was still something he could do about it?

It didn’t take him too long to find one of the bigger transmitter sources, in a clothing store of all places, He found himself actually quite enjoying being in the thick of things, running around, just like he always used to. Of course it was hard to see the dead body down in the basement, knowing that he might have been able to save the man if he’d been just a bit quicker, but he knew that he had to keep moving if he wanted to save everyone else on Earth.

Just as he was getting ready to head back upstairs, the Doctor realized that he could feel someone watching him, and he quickly turned around. Standing right behind him was a young blonde girl. No… she wasn’t a girl. Even without specifically looking at her timeline, his senses were telling him that she was not some ordinary little ape with a brief little life span. As if to confirm what he’d already figured out, her eyes flashed gold for a moment before going back to normal. “Run?” she asked him, a teasing lilt in her voice. She had a surprisingly base London accent for someone so… inhuman. 

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her. “Who are you? This planet is under protection, and if you intend to…” he trailed off when she sidled up right in front of him, tilting her head back to look him in the eyes. He gulped once. “Who are you?” he asked again.

She smiled, and the Doctor was struck by the familiarity of it, even though he couldn’t imagine where he’d ever seen her before. “I’m me. Don’t fret, my Doctor. I mean you no harm. Nor anyone under your protection. I only wanted to see you- this you- again. And hopefully give you a little bit of help.” Then she stood up on tiptoes in order to press a chaste kiss to his mouth before she appeared to fade away right in front of him.

The Doctor continued to stare at the space that had just been occupied, feeling like an idiot for having no idea what had just happened. Then he shook his head, and knew that he needed to get on with the blowing-something-up portion of his day. He turned to the elevator, but then realized that he could hear someone shouting. And, well, he wouldn’t be the Doctor if he didn’t try to help.

He hurried down the hallway, and then spotted a group of Autons cornering some human. They were short enough that all he could see was a glimpse of blonde hair, but he made his way over, and reached out his hand to grab hers. “Run!” It wasn’t until they were on the elevator and he’d torn a plastic arm off that he stopped to actually look, and he realized that it was the same girl from before.

Then he frowned. No, that wasn’t right. The girl in front of him was clearly human, and even though her eyes were a lovely shade of brown, they were nowhere near a glowing gold. He didn’t need to look at her timeline to know that he was right, that she was human. So whatever it was that had spoken to him before was potentially some kind of shapeshifter, though he knew that there were more important things at the moment.

He found himself enjoying all the girl’s questions, some of which almost made her sound clever, but he was still on the clock if he wanted to save the world again. He all but pushed her out the door as he told her to go home, but as soon as he turned around, the other one, the glowy one, was standing right there, leaning back against the wall, smiling at him for just a moment before disappearing again.

The Doctor needed a better way to distinguish the two, so he turned back around and pushed the door open. The human was still standing right there, and he grinned as he asked her name. Rose Tyler. Something about the sound of that seemed just right to him. 

,,,

Rose Tyler didn’t want to travel with him, and that was perfectly fine. The Doctor had traveled alone long enough at this point that it was what he was used to, and it was probably for the best. He didn’t need some human’s life on his hands when they inevitably got themselves killed on a planet light years away from their home. It didn’t matter that she’d saved his life, or that the TARDIS seemed to adore the girl right off the bat. It didn’t matter that Rose had looked disappointed in herself for turning him down just to stay with her stupid ape of a boyfriend. The Doctor didn’t need her anyways. 

He went around on his own for months, trying to avoid thinking about the truth, which was that he was so tired of it all. It felt like he’d seen everything already, and without the freshness of a new traveler’s excitement, without being able to see it through someone else’s eyes for the first time, it all just looked like stuff. 

So maybe it was time to find a new companion after all. He encountered interesting and brave people on almost every adventure, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find someone. He was just contemplating a Yaxelian who had tossed him a fire extinguisher just in time to prevent the king of Yaxus from being blown up, when he caught a glimpse of blonde out of the corner of his eye.

The Doctor turned, and his eyes widened to see the inhuman Rose Tyler look alike, standing on the TARDIS, with her hip leaned up against the console, as if she belonged there. He immediately mentally probed the TARDIS to see where she’d been hurt, but she only gave a hum of contentment. The Doctor had no idea how the alien had gotten onboard, but it was clear that his ship had no problem with the extra presence. “How did you get in here? And what are you doing here?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Oh, I get around. And I guess you could say that I’m here because I miss you, but you probably wouldn’t believe me. Oh, and I miss this old girl too, of course.” She reached down to stroke the console in a way reminiscent of some of the Doctor’s previous incarnations. “Of course I am quite fond of you no matter what you look like, but you never forget your first Doctor.”

“What’s your connection to Rose Tyler? How do you look like her?”

There was a brief pause, and then the Doctor got the impression that the TARDIS was laughing at him, which was really quite unfair. The alien grinned widely, in exactly the same way Rose had, and reached up to toss her hair back over her shoulder before answering. “Did I forget to introduce myself before? I am Rose Tyler. Sort of. You know what they say about spoilers, though.”

The Doctor couldn’t possibly figure out what could happen to the brilliant girl he’d met that would turn her into the creature in front of him, but he knew that it was his job to stop it from happening. He tried not to think about the fact that Rose had been in the back of his mind for quite a while now, and that really, he’d been trying to figure out an excuse to go back for her. This one was as good as any. He could keep an eye on her, and he could have someone to travel with again. “Well whatever it is that happened to you, I won’t let it.”

She arched one eyebrow. “No? Well, who am I to try and tell you that you can’t change the future? Just one thing, though. I’m already part of your personal timeline. If you try to stop me from existing, you would never meet me and have motivation to stop me. But don’t worry, I’m not cruel. I’ll give you a chance. That’s all the Doctor really needs, isn’t it? Even the slightest chance in the world of beating the odds?” And then suddenly she was right in front of the Doctor without having taken a single step, and she reached up to gently touch the sides of his head.

A moment later, the Doctor blinked and looked around. He had the strange feeling that something important had just happened, but he couldn’t think of what. Then he shook those thoughts aside, and went over to the console to put in coordinates. It had been months, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about a simple little shop girl from London. So he was going to break his own rules, and he was going to ask her twice.

,,,

Traveling with Rose was fantastic, to say the least, and even though logically the Doctor knew that his time with her was finite, even if she just died of old age, he also knew that he was going to enjoy their time together while he could. 

Adventure after adventure, and Rose saved him over and over, both from danger, and from himself, from the person he’d been ever since the war. She made him want to be a better person, and he just wanted to keep spending time with her. He knew, at times, that Rose wanted more from him, but he gave her more than he’d ever given anyone else, and just dearly hoped that it would be enough for him to keep her.

,,,

The Doctor remembered sending Rose away on the TARDIS, back to her home so that she could live a good life without him, and he remembered facing down the emperor of the Daleks, but being unable to hit the button, all because of Rose. He remembered being ready to die, knowing that all the other humans on board were dead. 

But he couldn’t remember anything else that happened after that. He groaned as he woke up on the TARDIS, sprawled across the metal grating. His head was pounding, but other than that, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him. Then he immediately jolted up to his feet. If the TARDIS was here, it meant that Rose had to be too, right?

It didn’t take too long to find her, because his lovely ship guided him straight to Rose’s location. She was in the Doctor’s bedroom. The Doctor had never let any other companions in there, but Rose had always been different, and they’d shared a bed- just for sleep- on a few different occasions. 

At the moment, she was facing away from him, looking at the wall, slowly dragging her fingers across it. “Rose? What happened?”

She slowly turned around, and the Doctor felt frozen in place. “I just wanted you safe, my Doctor,” she said softly, though her voice still managed to echo around the room. Her eyes were glowing a bright, unnatural gold, and now that he looked closer, he could see that her entire body was outlined in a faint glow. 

The Doctor stayed where he was as he looked at Rose, something niggling at the back of his mind. “What did you do?”

She offered him a small smile, nowhere near as bright as her usual grin. “I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and she looked into me.”

The Doctor’s eyes widened in alarm, and he felt fear filling him, on her behalf. “Rose, no one is meant to have that kind of power. How are you even still standing? How long have I been unconscious?” 

She snorted. “Unconscious… implies that I came back in time. But I did not. You were killed too quickly to regenerate before I arrived.” The Doctor immediately glanced down at himself, but he didn’t seem any different. But if he hadn’t regenerated, then- “I bring life, Doctor. And death. The Dalek empire is no more, and the Earth was saved. I see all of time, Doctor. Everything that is, or was, or still could be. I know what to do.”

And though the Doctor was terrified for Rose, he also found himself feeling just the slightest bit scared of her. She wasn’t really Rose anymore, was she? “Rose…”

“I am Bad Wolf,” she interrupted. “I create myself. I scattered the letters across time and space to lead myself to that moment, but I was still too late.” She walked closer to the Doctor, and he adamantly stood his ground. 

“No one is meant to have that power,” he repeated firmly. “It will kill you. I don’t know how it hasn’t already.”

Rose- no, Bad Wolf, just smiled at him, and reached up to gently cup the side of his face. “Do not be afraid, Doctor. I know what must happen. My head is killing me. I was never meant to hold on for so long. I was never meant to arrive so late. I was never meant to do so much before you could stop me.” There were tear tracks on her glowing face. “I am dying,” she whispered. “But it was worth it to see you, to see all of you.”

The Doctor felt his hearts break, and he gave her a small smile. “I think you need a Doctor.” And he kissed her for the first time, even though he knew that it wasn’t really Rose that he was kissing. Or maybe that it wasn’t only Rose that he was kissing?

He took the time vortex into himself, and could immediately feel pain filling every corner of his being. Not even Time Lords were meant for so much power. He could barely stand it long enough to gently lay the unconscious Rose on his bed, and then he hurried away to the console room, not wanting to accidentally hurt her. He had no idea how Rose, just a human, had been able to contain it for so long. Then again, there had never been anything ‘just’ about Rose. She’d always been so much more.

,,,

They never talked about what had happened on the Game Station. The Doctor assumed that Rose didn’t remember her time as Bad Wolf, and thought that it was just as well. But one thing that it had shown the Doctor was just how much Rose loved him. She had looked into the heart of the TARDIS to save him, even after seeing what a brief glance had done to the Slitheen. 

So the Doctor decided that he wasn’t going to keep pushing her away just because of her short life span. How was being lonely now, when she was right there, any better than being happy now? He knew that no matter what their relationship was, he would be miserable when he lost her, so he may as well take full advantage of the time that they did have left.

Though it was easier said than done, mostly because the Doctor was something of a coward who had always gone out of his way to avoid any emotional vulnerabilities. Seeing Sarah Jane again after so many years had scared him, giving him a glimpse of Rose’s future. And then he’d hurt her with Reinette. He’d known that the TARDIS would be able to take Rose and Mickey home without him thanks to an emergency program he’d installed, but just the fact that he’d left them behind was bad enough.

The first time they kissed was after Krop Tor, when the Doctor realized that if he’d been honest with Satan, then he could be honest with Rose. And coming together like that had just felt so right, that the Doctor berated himself for never doing this sooner. Their adventures didn’t change much, still full of running and excitement and danger and saving people, but they found more excuses to hold hands, and all of the in-between times became so much… more. 

,,,

The Doctor burned up a sun to say goodbye to Rose Tyler, and he knew that he would burn up a thousand more if it meant that he could hold her for even just a minute. He looked at her, and hated himself for making her cry. Rose Tyler should never be made to cry for anything, not even him. Then she told him where she was, and as soon as the words “Dårlig Ulv Stranden,” were uttered, the Doctor was flooded with memories. 

He had met Bad Wolf before, on many different occasions between all of his different faces. She had never interfered directly, never actively saved his life, but she always helped him reach whatever conclusion he needed to find, and then she would leave and take his memory of her with him, so that he would only remember his decision. She’d been there all his life, always helping keep him on the right path. Bad Wolf had the power of time itself in her hands, and all she’d used it for was to help him. 

And as soon as his two minutes with Rose were up, with him having just barely managed to tell her how he felt before he ran out of him, he could feel eyes on his back, and he slowly turned around to see her standing right behind him. “If you could do anything, why did you let her fall?”

Bad Wolf gave him a sympathetic look. “She needed to. There is trouble on the horizon, Doctor, even if you can’t see it yet. Trouble that no one here will see until it is too late, unless they are given a warning.”

The Doctor reached out to grab Bad Wolf’s hand before he could stop himself, and was struck by just how much power was flowing through her. It truly was a miracle that Rose hadn’t been torn to shreds by it. “You can see all of time, right? Will I ever see her again?”

She gave him a long, searching look. “I am assuming that now that you remember, you don’t want me to make you forget anymore?” The Doctor slowly nodded. “In that case, I cannot tell you your future, Doctor, you know that. But I can promise that you will never be alone, my Doctor. I will always be here when you need me. But right now, you don’t need me. You’re about to find yourself with some rather fascinating company.” 

And then she was gone, and a few seconds later, there was someone else standing on the TARDIS, a human woman wearing a wedding dress. The Doctor stared at the stranger with wide eyes. “What?”

,,,

Martha was clever and brilliant, but it was obvious that she cared about the Doctor in ways that he would never be able to reciprocate. He wasn’t sure if it was even possible for anyone to find love elsewhere after having loved Rose Tyler. He tried to make it clear that he didn’t feel for Martha in that way, but he knew that she was going to end up hurt. 

When they first bumped into Jack, after he hitched a ride on the outside of the TARDIS all the way to the end of the universe, the Doctor could immediately sense something wrong with the man. He had already mourned his loss, after the Game Station, but now he could see Jack’s timeline, and see that he was a fixed point, which no person should ever be. It must have been Bad Wolf who had done it, giving life to more than just the Doctor.

She had mentioned ‘doing too much’ before he could stop her. Was that what she’d meant? Jack was an abomination, and it almost made the Doctor physically ill just to look at him. And then Jack mentioned seeing Rose’s name on the list of the dead from Canary Wharf, and the Doctor knew that he couldn’t hold anything against the man. He only hesitated for a moment before assuring him that Rose was still alive- even though truthfully, he couldn’t know that for sure since she was trapped in a parallel universe where he was never going to see her again. 

The day ended with the Doctor finding out that maybe he wasn’t as alone in the universe as he’d thought, but that there was nothing he could do about it. He was trapped on the other side of the door as the other Time Lord ran around, cackling and talking nonsense. The Doctor banged on the door, begging the other Time Lord to understand that they only had each other, but nothing seemed able to get through to the other man.

Then Bad Wolf was suddenly there, looking as casual and unhurried as ever. “Doctor…” she trailed off, and for the first time the Doctor could recall, Bad Wolf did not look like the confident, all-knowing being that she was. “Adversity is required to grow and change, and I know that better than most, but I also know that what you’re potentially about to face is so terrible that no one should have to face it. I could put a stop to it right now if I wanted to, and oh, I am so desperate to. I would save you all the pain in the world if I could, my Doctor. But if I do, would you still be my Doctor?” She reached up, like she wanted to touch the Doctor’s face, but then dropped her hand at the last moment, and looked up at him, waiting for him to make a decision.

The Doctor wasn’t sure what to do. There wasn’t time to search his entire timeline to find out what his answer should be. “I just have one question. If the Master gets away right now, will innocent people be hurt?”

Bad Wolf hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yes. Those at the center of the storm may never fully heal.”

He knew that changing his own future was bad, but it wasn’t like he’d gone back in time to do it. And he couldn’t let innocent people get hurt if there was anything that he could do to stop it. He nodded once. “Please, put a stop to it.”

Bad Wolf gave the Doctor a long look, and then she sighed. “As you wish, my Doctor.” She disappeared, but a moment later, he could see her reappear on the other side of the door, right in front of the Master. She reached out to touch his temples, and she was facing away from him so the Doctor couldn’t see what was happening. All he knew was that he trusted Bad Wolf to have the power to fix whatever it was that might have gone terribly wrong.

The door suddenly opened, and the Doctor stumbled inside because of the way that he’d been leaning up against it. He slowly walked over to the Master, who was kneeling on the floor, eyes closed and a peaceful look on his old man’s face. The Doctor looked at Bad Wolf, and was startled to see tear marks on her face. “What did you do?” he whispered.

Bad Wolf gave him a sad smile. “Something that should have been done many years ago. I took away the drums. The madness is still there, I will not take that away from him, but I have given you a chance. That is all that you should need. I will give you a moment to say goodbye, and then I will return him to the timelock on Gallifrey. Do not fret, you will see him again. I wish you the best of luck, my Doctor.” Then she was gone, and Jack and Martha were suddenly rushing into the room, while the Master collapsed to the floor, unconscious. 

The Doctor knelt down next to his old friend, and silently thanked Bad Wolf for her interference, while also feeling like the biggest hypocrite in the universe.

,,,

Martha left, in the end, because she knew that it was what was best for her. She finally understood that the Doctor could never care for her the way she did for him, and even though it still hurt, because the Doctor was losing a brilliant friend, he also knew that it was best for both of them. Even now, he couldn’t stop thinking about Rose, and it didn’t help that every time he thought he could actually succeed at it, Bad Wolf would show up again, looking and sounding like the Rose that he’d lost. None of the other people around him could ever see her, but the Doctor knew without a doubt that she was real. 

But then he found Donna again, or maybe she found him, and the Doctor was excited to go out and explore the universe again. 

,,,

As soon as Donna uttered the words, ‘Bad Wolf’, the Doctor was running outside, and he looked around the small alleyway desperately. There was that name, slapped across every surface in sight, including the TARDIS itself, and he knew that Donna was full of questions and concerns, but the Doctor could barely think. Donna had seen Rose. The real Rose Tyler, not Bad Wolf, and something bad was coming. But Rose was coming too.

,,,

The TARDIS landed, and the Doctor reached out to grab the handle so that he could open the doors and step outside into the street. The monitor had already shown everything looking strangely empty and silent, and he needed to go out and try and figure out what to do next. How was it that the Daleks kept showing up over and over again, no matter how many times he thought that the last of them had been destroyed? It made him question what the point had been in ending the Time War if he hadn’t actually succeeded in ending it. 

Before he could actually open the door, he felt a hand reach up to gently wrap around his wrist, and turned to see Bad Wolf standing beside him. “A moment of your time, Doctor?”

He sighed, and then shrugged one shoulder. “I am a lord of it, so I think I can spare a moment.” 

Bad Wolf smiled at that. “I wanted to give you a gift. Perhaps it is selfish of me, but soon you will not need me anymore. When that happens, I will return to a moment from years ago, before you woke up on the TARDIS after the Game Station. You already know what happens from there. You will take the vortex, and I will be Rose Tyler again, and nobody else. But before that moment, I will give this gift, this proof that you will not need me. Proof that I have only ever done what would lead you to this moment.” She kissed him, but there was no transfer of power. Instead, the Doctor felt a slight nudge at his mind, and after a long pause, he let her in.

The images flashed by so quickly that he couldn’t catch them all right away, but he got the gist of it. He saw himself with Rose by his side. But it wasn’t the future that he was being shown. Instead, he was seeing the past. He saw his time with Rose, but it was all the moments that he’d never seen before. He saw the way she looked at him when he was busy rambling away, or tinkering on the TARDIS. He saw the bright flush on her cheeks whenever her mum or Mickey asked about her relationship with him. He saw her brilliant grin, never directed towards anyone else with quite as much intensity as when it was towards him. He saw her when he’d sent her home, and how she had screamed and cried, and been so determined to never give up on him. And he also saw her in Pete’s world. He saw her refuse to mope around for long at all, and quickly settling into her new life as an heiress, never feeling quite like she fit in. He saw her join Torchwood, and make sure that it would never end up like Torchwood One had. He saw her work with a team who she barely knew in order to build a way to find the Doctor, but it never worked. He saw the stars going out, and the machine suddenly worked, and Rose went everywhere trying to find the one person who she believed could help. He saw her standing so close the night he’d reunited with Donna, and he saw her struggle to balance her compassion with a newfound intelligence about the world around her. He saw her hope desperately with each jump that it would be the one she needed to make.

Then the images suddenly stopped as Bad Wolf pulled away. “I needed to make sure you would get here because I never stopped looking for you, my Doctor. Or I never will stop. Time travel can make the tenses more difficult.” On the monitor, the Doctor heard the sound of a Dalek, and his eyes widened as he rushed past Bad Wolf to go out and see what was going on. He didn’t see the way she stayed and watched him for a few more minutes before fading away.

He burst outside, and saw the smoldering remains of a Dalek, and Jack holding a big gun. Donna was standing with her hands on her hips, clearly in the middle of telling someone off, and then the Doctor saw the most brilliant sight that he’d ever seen in his entire life. Rose was standing there, a weirdly large gun resting against her hip, a patient look on her face as Donna bitched. 

Then her eyes slid past Donna, and landed on the Doctor, and she stared at him for a long moment before a blinding grin lit up her face, and she ran towards him. He ran as well, and they somehow managed to avoid smashing into one another as they collided and pulled each other into a tight hug. “Doctor,” Rose breathed out, sounding like she could hardly believe it. “I’ve missed you so much. I love you, Doctor.”

“I’ve missed you too,” he admitted in a quiet voice. “I’m so sorry I never told you until that day on the beach-”

“It’s okay,” she cut him off. She pulled back, though the Doctor’s arms tightened around her before he could even think about it. She just grinned. “Everything’s okay now, because I’m here. I actually made it here. Better with two, remember?”

When she stepped into the TARDIS after Jack and Donna went in, the Doctor could feel the way that the TARDIS seemed to fully embrace Rose, almost like giving the human a mental hug. It made sense that they would be so attached, since they had apparently spent years together as Bad Wolf. The Doctor still had no idea how Rose had managed to do that without burning up, but he wasn’t going to question it when it meant that he’d been led back to Rose after being forced apart for so long.

They found a way to win the day, just like they always did, though this time it was with the help of a few friends. The Doctor wasn’t even sure what to say when the Master suddenly showed up and messed around with the nearby machines to help them, though the Doctor did suspect that it was one final farewell gift from Bad Wolf. 

He brought everyone home one by one, grateful for just how many people he had in his life, and then brought Rose and Jackie back to Pete’s world so that they could have a tearful farewell before Jackie went home and Rose stayed with the Doctor. He wanted to apologize to Rose for making it so she’d never see her mother again, but after everything that had happened, he’d learned his lesson about ever saying ‘never’. Especially since he left the Master behind in Pete’s world as well, hoping that being taken in to a loving household with Pete and Jackie would help him recover further from his madness, and from the fact that he’d essentially single-handedly killed all of the Daleks. 

Donna demanded that the Doctor take her home and leave her there for at least a few months in his time, though also said that if he didn’t pick her up by her next weekend, she would smack him into his next regeneration. Once she was gone, Rose couldn’t stop giggling, and finally told the Doctor that Donna hadn’t wanted to stick around while Rose was ‘reintroduced’ to the TARDIS, and more specifically, to the Doctor’s bedroom. 

,,,

The Doctor and Rose spent years together before he admitted that it was time to go back for Donna. He didn't mind though, because Donna was an amazing friend, and because he knew that he still had so much time left still with Rose. It wasn’t until a few years later that the Doctor started to question what was going on. 

Donna had gotten too old to keep running around, and had met a nice young man that she wanted to settle down with. She made the Doctor promise to call and talk to her quite often, and eventually introduced him to her children, who were brought along on a couple of tame trips- or at least tame by the Doctor’s standards. 

But through all of that, Rose remained the same as ever, looking like the nineteen year old shop girl who had changed his entire life. When he finally brought it up with her, she got a sheepish look on her face. “Doctor… it was Bad Wolf. I think you already know that.” She reached out to hold his hands. “I remember everything that happened when I was Bad Wolf. I didn’t immediately, but it only took a couple of months of traveling around in the TARDIS for the memories to come back. Years and years worth. I was selfish, and I did everything I could to make sure I would get back to you. And I am selfish enough to never want to let you go, so I made sure that I wouldn’t have to.”

The Doctor stared at her for a moment while he processed that, and then pulled Rose into a tight hug. “Oh, you are brilliant,” he whispered. “Absolutely brilliant.” And off in the far distance, Bad Wolf smiled to herself, as she knew that her job was complete, and she disappeared for the last time.


End file.
